Written Answers Tuesday 16 May 2006

Scottish Executive

Autism

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all rights of people with autistic spectrum disorder are covered by existing legislation.

Lewis Macdonald: Existing legislation protects the human rights of all people in Scotland including those with autism spectrum disorders.

  I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-24770 on 27 April 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Birds

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20474 by Rhona Brankin on 17 November 2005, what consideration it has now given to the recommendations of the research project, Review of Urban Gulls and their Management in Scotland, undertaken for the Executive by BTO Scotland and the Centre for Conservation Science at the University of Stirling, and when it now expects guidance to local authorities to be published.

Rhona Brankin: I will be writing shortly to the Parliament’s Petitions Committee with the findings of the Review of Urban Gulls and their Management in Scotland. I also propose to make available copies of the report to local authorities and to publish the report on the Executive’s website. I will be open to views from the committee or from local authority representatives whether in light of the findings of the review there are issues on which further guidance from the Executive would be helpful.

Blood Transfusion Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been infected with blood-borne viruses during or following participation in clinical research, broken down by time and location and specifying the nature of the research, since 1978.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service are not aware of any cases of transmission of blood borne viruses during, or as a consequence of, participation in clinical research of SNBTS products.

Blood Transfusion Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many units of blood were transfused in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients were transfused with blood in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not centrally available. Data on the number of units transfused during this period was held locally.

Blood Transfusion Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many blood donors contributed to the donor pool in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Mr Andy Kerr: Scottish National Blood Transfusion records show the number of donor attendances was as follows:

  

 1981-82
 322,312


 1982-83
 328,086


 1983-84
 336,802


 1984-85
 338,287


 1985-86
 333,112


 1986-87
 331,039


 1987-88
 314,657


 1988-89
 324,382


 1989-90
 332,615


 1990-91
 352,314


 1991-92
 347,602



  On average each donor will attend 1.6 times during a year.

Blood Transfusion Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have become infected with blood-borne viruses following clinical trials, broken down by time and location of the trial since 1978.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) are not aware of any cases of transmission of the hepatitis C virus in any clinical trials of SNBTS products.

Charities

Janis Hughes (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish new charity accounting regulations.

Malcolm Chisholm: The new Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006  (S.S.I No. 218) have been published and are available on the Office of Public Sector Information website: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/index.htm .

  They were laid before the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2006, coming into force on 17 May 2006 subject to parliamentary approval.

Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land) (Scotland) Order 2004

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to amend the Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land) (Scotland) Order 2004, and, if so, when this is likely to take effect.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive expects to present to Parliament later this year an amending order to update the Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land)(Scotland) Order 2004. This will take account of changes to population statistics and settlement boundaries since implementation of the Community Right to Buy legislation in June 2004. The effective date will depend on Parliament’s determination of the amending order, which will be subject to affirmative resolution.

Electricity Act 1989

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23957 by Allan Wilson on 14 March 2006, whether this answer indicates that Scottish ministers will withhold consent under section 36(1) of the Electricity Act 1989 if construction of a new nuclear power station is proposed and the Executive remains unsatisfied that the waste management issue is resolved.

Allan Wilson: In accordance with ministers’ duties under the Electricity Act 1989 any application to construct a new nuclear power station would be fully considered on its individual merits. However, the Executive’s policy, as stated in the Partnership Agreement, creates a presumption against the Executive granting consent to such an application while waste management issues remain unresolved.

Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions for assaults on emergency workers there have been in each year since enactment of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, broken down by police force area.

Cathy Jamieson: Statistics on convictions are published annually by the Scottish Executive Justice Department each spring. The latest set of annual statistics on convictions published on 27 April 2006 are for 2004-05, which predates the enactment of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 on 9 May 2005.

  Information available from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s case management database indicates that, at 19 April 2006, a total of 290 charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 had been reported to Procurators fiscal. A breakdown of this total by police force area is given in the following table.

  Charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, by Police Force Area1

  

 Police Force Area
 Total
 Charge Proved
 No Final Outcome Reached1


 Central
 5
 3
 1


 Dumfries and Galloway
 13
 6
 3


 Fife
 17
 4
 9


 Grampian
 17
 7
 8


 Lothian and Borders
 73
 32
 24


 Northern
 6
 2
 -


 Strathclyde
 146
 39
 77


 Tayside
 13
 5
 7


 Total
 290
 98
 129



  Note: 1. Position as at 19 April 2006.

Fisheries

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanism will be used to distribute to individual fishing vessels the quota allocated to the United Kingdom in the recently concluded fisheries partnership agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco.

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what role it will have in implementing and enforcing the recently concluded fisheries partnership agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco.

Ross Finnie: The EC/Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) is due to come into force on 1 June and ratification by the Council is expected on 22 May. The UK has secured 2,500 tonnes of pelagic quota in the agreement. Details of the number of licences to be made available to member states are likely to be known at a later date. At that time, UK Fisheries Administrations will put in place the necessary mechanisms to award quota and licences.

Fisheries

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it anticipates that any Scottish vessels will be allocated quotas under the recently concluded fisheries partnership agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco.

Ross Finnie: The EC/Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) is due to come into force on 1 June and ratification by the Council is expected on 22 May. The UK has secured 2,500 tonnes of pelagic quota in the agreement. Details of the number of licences to be made available to member states are likely to be known at a later date. At that time, UK Fisheries Administrations will put in place the necessary mechanisms to award quota and licences. We anticipate that Scottish vessels will be issued with licences.

Health

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the drug, Enbrel, can be prescribed for arthritis sufferers in Scotland on the NHS.

Lewis Macdonald: Enbrel (etanercept) is available on NHS prescription and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) have provided advice to NHS Scotland on its use.

  The Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS) (now part of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland) issued advice on the use of etanercept (Enbrel) on the following dates:

  17 May 2002 - Comment on the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal Guidance number 35 on the use of etanercept for the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

  17 May 2002 - Comment on the NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance number 36 on the use of etanercept and infliximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

  The comments can be accessed at www.nhshealthquality.org.

  On 12 July 2004, the SMC issued advice to NHSScotland on the use of etanercept for the treatment of active and progressive psoriatic arthritis in adults. The SMC advice can be accessed at: www.scottishmedicines.org.

  In each case, the HTBS and the SMC advised that NHSScotland should take account of the advice and ensure that recommended drugs and treatments are made available to meet clinical need.

Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether acupuncturists were specifically consulted on the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Skin Piercing and Tattooing) Order 2006 and what action it is taking to clarify the interpretation of this order with the public, local authorities and acupuncturists.

Mr Andy Kerr: Acupuncturists were specifically consulted about possible tighter regulation of skin and body piercing activities in order to reduce the risk of transmission of blood-borne and other infections. A full list of the consultees and the analysis of the responses is available at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/health/rspcp-00.asp.

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/maroon/piercing-02.asp.

  The draft order was announced in a News Release on 6 December 2005 and issued for wider distribution that same day.

  In order to assist local authorities in taking forward the implementation of the order, the Scottish Executive has worked with Health Protection Scotland to ensure that all local authorities have been provided with best practice guidance produced by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Further detailed guidance is being developed for Scotland and awareness raising and best practice workshops are being organised for local authorities.

  The Scottish Executive has been providing and will continue to provide guidance where requested both to the public and to local authorities.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many units of donated blood were identified as containing the hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus (a) prospectively and (b) retrospectively, in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus infectivity rate was in donated blood in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Mr Andy Kerr: There was no method of identifying donations prospectively as hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis positive until 1991. After the introduction of testing in 1991, 256 donations (0.06%) were positive for hepatitis C out of 442,406 donations. The testing period ran from September 1991 to December 1992.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients received blood or blood products identified, either prospectively or retrospectively, as containing the hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service has identified 139 patients, through it’s lookback process and subsequent investigations, who received blood containing the hepatitis C virus up to the introduction of screening in 1991.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients who have been identified as having received blood contaminated by hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus, in each year from 1978 to 1992, have been contacted by health services following look-back execises.

Mr Andy Kerr: This was a matter for the clinicians responsible.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available any documentation which explains the estimated number of patients who may have received blood infected with hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus.

Andy Kerr: Soldan et al Epidemiology and Infection (2002) Volume 129:587-591 estimates the numbers infected prior to 1991 and is the source for the figure for England that was quoted in the preliminary Report by Lord Ross. Estimates from 1993 onwards are contained in Vox Sanguinis; 2003 May;84(4):274-86 . Estimates for Scotland used the same methodology but reflected the data from the Scottish HCV lookback programme.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time was between infection and diagnosis for those with (a) hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis or (b) HIV among the (i) drug-injecting and (ii) non-drug-injecting population in each year from 1978 to 1992.

Mr Andy Kerr: Information is not available to answer the question as there are no tests which indicate when an individual acquired HIV or hepatitis C. In addition, people who become infected with these viruses rarely present with an acute illness.

  Data were not collected for non-A and non-B hepatitis.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to initiate a recall of patients who received blood during the period when the hepatitis C or non-A, non-B hepatitis virus was likely to have been present in the donor pool to offer screening and appropriate counselling and care to those who have not already been offered such services.

Mr Andy Kerr: The lookback exercise which was undertaken by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service has traced as far as practicable patients who may have received blood infected with the hepatitis C virus. If any new cases of suspected infection from blood transfusion prior to introduction of testing arise, further investigation and lookback action will be carried out.

Hepatitis

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates it has of the number of people who may have contracted hepatitis C but have not yet received a diagnosis and whether it will provide any or all documentation in relation to this matter.

Mr Andy Kerr: It is estimated that 50,000 individuals are currently living in Scotland who are HCV antibody positive, the majority of whom contracted their infection through injecting drugs and 33,500 of whom remain undiagnosed. Of the 16,500 formally diagnosed, 400 (2.4%) of these are confirmed as having contracted their infection through blood transfusion or blood products. The source of this data can be found from the paper within the Scottish Medical Journal 2006, Vol 51, Issue 2, Hutchison SJ, et al, Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Scotland: Epidemiological review and public health challenges .

Housing

Roseanna Cunningham (Perth) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review its policy with regard to illegal evictions to ensure that unlawful practice is stopped.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 makes it a criminal offence to evict a tenant without due process of law. Where allegations of such an offence are substantiated following investigation, the police will submit a report to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration of whether or not to raise criminal proceedings. We have no plans to alter these arrangements.

  The requirement in Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 for private landlords to register allows a local authority to act against a landlord who is using unacceptable letting practices. Evidence of illegal eviction or harassment would be material which could lead the local authority to decide that a landlord’s registration should be refused or removed, leading to the potential for criminal and civil penalties should the landlord continue to let.

  Officials are in discussion with representatives of Shelter, ACPOS and COSLA on how police powers and the new local authority powers can be used most effectively to address illegal eviction.

Languages

Ms Maureen Watt (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial support it has given to organisations to promote Doric or Lallan Scots in each year since the inception of the Parliament.

Patricia Ferguson: The Scottish Executive considers Scots and its regional forms to be an important part of Scotland’s distinctive linguistic and cultural heritage. The Scottish Executive does not offer financial support directly to organisations for the purpose of promoting Scots. Such support is provided principally through the Scottish Arts Council’s (SAC) literature department and I will ask the Chair of the SAC to write to the member with this information. Details of grants made by the SAC to organisations promoting Doric or Lallans Scots are not centrally collated.

NHS Staff

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacant posts for (a) trainee doctors, (b) junior house officers, (c) senior house officers, (d) registrars and (e) consultants in the NHS have had two or more applicants in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board and speciality.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally.

  NHS boards are responsible for advertising and recruiting to fill vacant posts. The Executive does not routinely collect details on the levels of interest expressed for each vacant post.

NHS Staff

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) trainee doctor, (b) junior house officer, (c) senior house officer, (d) registrar and (e) consultant posts have been vacant in the NHS in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board and speciality.

Mr Andy Kerr: Vacancy information for trainee doctors, junior house officers, senior house officers and registrars, is not available centrally.

  Information on consultant vacancies in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. Tables B11 and B12 show the number of consultant vacancies, broken down by NHS board area. Latest available figures are at 30 September 2005.

NHS Staff

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive for how long vacancies in the NHS for (a) trainee doctors, (b) junior house officers, (c) senior house officers, (d) registrars and (e) consultants have been unfilled in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board and speciality.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally.

  NHS boards are responsible for advertising and recruiting to fill vacant posts.

NHS Staff

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by NHS board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of nurses.

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS board managers reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of board managers.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not currently collected centrally.

  It is, however, intended to begin collection of data this winter through the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS) using the Health and Safety Executive sickness absence code under the collective heading of anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illness. Data from the collection is not expected to be available until early next year.

NHS Staff

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many GPs reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by NHS board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of GPs.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not available.

Parliamentary Questions

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to parliamentary question S2W-24617 which received a holding reply on 24 April 2006.

Cathy Jamieson: Parliamentary question S2W-24617 was answered on 11 May 2006.

Planning

Murray Tosh (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when it received the inquiry reporter’s recommendation and when it expects to issue a decision, in relation to the application for a 22-turbine wind farm at Corlick Hill in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.

Allan Wilson: A report from the Inquiry Reporter was received by the Executive on 8 September 2005 on the Corlick Hill consent application. A determination on the application is currently being considered by Scottish ministers and will be announced once that process has been completed. The PLI report and the minister’s decision will be made public thereafter.

Police

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has over the British Transport Police’s operations in Scotland.

Cathy Jamieson: Scottish ministers have no collective power to direct Chief Constables on operational matters. The Lord Advocate has a statutory power to instruct the police in Scotland in relation to the investigation and reporting of alleged criminal activity.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-20247, S2W-23158, S2W-23156 and S2W-24271 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005, 17 February, 10 March and 4 April 2006 respectively, whether it obtained information on which these answers were based from personnel within the Scottish Criminal Record Office and, if so, from whom and whether it is satisfied that the information was accurate and unbiased.

Cathy Jamieson: The questions were answered on the basis of advice obtained by the Scottish Executive from senior managers in the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO). The answers would not have been given if there had been reason to doubt that the information was accurate and unbiased.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23439 by Cathy Jamieson on 7 March 2006 and given that the outstanding issues have now been resolved, whether it will now provide a breakdown of the total costs to it of legal representation which it sought in defence of the compensation claim against it by Shirley McKie.

Cathy Jamieson: The following table shows a breakdown of costs incurred by the Scottish Executive to date in defence of the compensation claim against it by Shirley McKie. Figures have been rounded up to the nearest pound and include VAT.

  

 Category
 Cost


 Court dues
£1,073


 Counsels’ fees
£141, 206


 Expert Witness fees
£81,751


 Printing costs
£375


 Law accountants
£80


 Agents’ fees
£44,342


 Witnesses’ expenses
£750


 Other outlays
£571


 Total
£270,148

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22317 by Cathy Jamieson on 31 January 2006, whether it will now provide details of complaints about the internal workings of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) by current and former employees of SCRO which were raised either with ministers or senior managers within SCRO but outwith formal grievance procedures, including details on how many such complaints there were in each of the last 10 years, what the precise nature was of any such complaints, to whom they were reported, who dealt with them, what the outcome was in each case and what position the complainant held at the time of the complaint.

Cathy Jamieson: The only complaint of this nature of which we are aware is the complaint to which reference is made in the answer to question S2W-23612 on 20 April 2006. In addition, some of the representations received about the McKie case have been made by, or on behalf of current and former employees of SCRO.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22066 by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006, why there is such a differential in absentee rates between the Aberdeen and Glasgow fingerprint bureaux and what the absentee rate was amongst those officers cited in the MacKay Report as being the subject of a recommendation for prosecution.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the information provided on 26 April to the Justice 1 Committee (Col 2898) by the Director of the Scottish Criminal Record Office and the Head of the Scottish Fingerprint Service. This can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/justice1/or-06/j106-1201.htm.

  The absence record of individuals is a confidential matter between employer and employee.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in relation to the action taken by Shirley McKie against the Scottish ministers and others, it will provide details of the final costs of the case, broken down into (a) counsel’s fees and court costs, (b) expert witness reports and evidence, (c) the Scottish ministers’ liability for expenses to the pursuer and (d) other expenses.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25298 on 16 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  The Executive has not yet received Ms McKie’s account of expenses.

Sport

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that training facilities and coaches are of a standard high enough to allow Olympians to train in Scotland.

Patricia Ferguson: Scotland already boasts a number of world class sports facilities but through the national and regional sports facilities strategy we are aiming to put in place a network of multi-sport facilities across Scotland, including a national indoor arena for competition. On coaches, many individual athletes will have their own personal coach and that is a decision for them. Through  sportscotland, however, the Executive grant aids a number of sports governing bodies to support the employment of high performance coaches.

Sport

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive at what level Scottish athletes should aspire to compete and what action it will take to help those athletes reach that level.

Patricia Ferguson: It is for individual athletes to decide the level they should aspire to. The Executive’s role is to work with  sportscotland, the Scottish Institute of Sport network, governing bodies and other relevant sports organisations to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to meet those aspirations. We are currently considering what further investment is needed to build on the successful performance of the Scottish team at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

VisitScotland

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much VisitScotland has spent on marketing Scotland in Australia in each year since 1997; what forms of media have been used, and how much it will spend for these purposes in the next three years.

Patricia Ferguson: VisitScotland works closely with VisitBritain in marketing Scotland to the Australian tourism market as part of the Britain brand portfolio. VisitBritain’s Australia marketing budget has risen from £0.9 million in 1997-98 to £1.4 million in 2005-06. Prior to 2004-05, VisitScotland invested only in public relations and travel trade activity in Australia. Its spend on marketing Scotland in Australia in 2003-04, 2004-05, and 2005-06 was £20,000, £100,000, and £140,000 respectively. The increase in 2004-05 was aimed at exploiting the opportunities provided by the new Emirates Dubai-Glasgow service. In addition, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo visiting Sydney in 2005, and the VisitScotland budget was further increased in 2005-06 to exploit this opportunity.

  VisitScotland’s marketing activity in Australia includes press and on-line advertising, e-promotions, public relations, and travel trade activity, all supported by VisitBritain’s Britain brand portfolio. Given the future growth potential of the Australian market, VisitScotland plans to continue to invest at the same level as 2005-06 in future years.